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Designing Atmospheric Tools for Mobile Hybrid Microgrids

The atmosphere has a significant impact on the successful operation of certain hybrid mobile microgrids. The hybrid microgrid referenced consists of both traditional and non-traditional (renewable energy) power generation. The motivation for integrating a diversity of power resources is to facilitate and improve uninterrupted electricity flow at isolated and remotely-located sites, such as those serviced during a disaster relief and recovery mission. One critical challenge for hybrid microgrids is to ensure transparent transitions (ramping) between the multiple power generation resources. For hybrids utilizing solar energy, these transitions are a function of the atmosphere; primarily, solar radiation. The anticipation of the transition between solar and non-solar resources is the underlying vision for the research being illustrated. In this presentation, we will describe a mobile renewable energy microgrid, identifying the atmospheric strengths and challenges in contrast with a utility grid. We then expand the description to include a vision of what a future mobile hybrid microgrid might entail, along with a summary of the ongoing atmospheric research being done to ensure smooth transitions between solar and alternative fuel resources.